This coming January, John Knowles and I will also be embarking on ‘The Heart Songs Tour’. I will be performing some songs solo, and John and I will be brining some of these new Heart Songs to life together. Since these new songs are so intimate, we decided to take this tour into some smaller listening rooms where we can really connect closer with you. In California, we’re playing in San Francisco, Bakersfield, San Juan Capistrano, and San Diego. We’re performing multiple nights in New York, Boston, Alexandria (DC area), Minneapolis, Atlanta, and Franklin (Nashville area). We’ll also be appearing in Homer, NY and St. Louis, MO. A full list of tour dates and ticket links can be found at https://tommyemmanuel.com/site-2020-old/tours/.
It’s no secret that I owe Chet Atkins a whole lot. Not only did he inspire and enlighten me in so many ways, but he also introduced me to one of my best friends – John Knowles. John is an amazing songwriter, arranger, and guitar player…not to mention a fellow CGP. I’ve worked on many projects with him, and I’ve been lucky enough to tour with him too. After 2 years of recording in our limited spare time, John and I have finally put together an album entitled Heart Songs. About 5 years ago, John and I worked up an arrangement of one of my favorite Bee Gee’s songs, “How Deep Is Your Love”. Whenever we played it live the audiences seemed to love it. We decided to just record a video for it, and we put it up on YouTube. After millions of views and a blessing from the composer Barry Gibb, I thought we may be on to something here. When John and I started diving into arranging some more material, a certain theme started to emerge.
Heart Songs is an album comprised of songs about love and played directly from our hearts. We took some of our favorite classic songs about love and rearranged them into something that we think is really special and challenging. We played country classics such as Hank Williams’ “Cold, Cold Heart” and Don Gibson’s “I Can’t Stop Loving You”. On the guitar, I got to emulate some of my favorite singers like Michael McDonald, Billy Joel, and Bonnie Raitt. We even jumped into a little theatre with songs like “Somewhere” from West Side Story and “Where is Love” from Oliver!. We also added in some original songs like “After Paris” by John and my song “Eva Waits”. This album really was a blessing to make with one of my best friends! I hope you feel the love and the joy oozing out of our hearts, strings, and fingers as you listen!
Pre-orders will start this Friday, and be on the lookout for “Cold, Cold Heart”.
The Accomplice Tour keeps rolling on. I am very proud to announce that in March 2019, I am coming back to the Europe with the amazing blues guitarist, JD Simo. Earlier this year, I did a run of shows with JD in the western Untied States. We had a blast, and I didn’t want it to end. We decided to take our guitar circus to the United Kingdom and Holland. I love playing with JD. He’ll play solo, I’ll do my solo thing, and then we’ll tear it up together.
In the United Kingdom, we’ll be playing in Perth, Coventry, Shrewsbury, Salisbury, London, Sheffield, Manchester and Cambridge. In Holland, we’re performing in Groningen, Utrecht, Heerlen, Tilburg, Nijmegen and Rotterdam. A full list of tour dates can be found here. The Holland shows are on-sale now, and the shows in the UK go on-sale this Friday.
JD and I recorded “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of The Bay” for Accomplice One. JD also appears on the track “Wheelin’ & Dealin’” where he plays a blistering country guitar solo that still blows me away every time I hear it. Check it out, and I hope to see you on the Endless Road.
